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Christian Horner says that there is no power struggle going on within Red Bull Racing with three-time world champion Sebastian Vettel, right. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

The relationship between Red Bull Racing drivers Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber is not the only question being asked around the Red Bull garage this week at Shanghai on the eve of the Chinese Grand Prix. Team principal Christian Horner faced questions about his control of the team after team orders were ignored at the recent Formula One race in Malaysia that saw Vettel disobey the boss and pass Webber for the win.

"Well, I don't think Sebastian for one moment thinks he runs the team," Horner said on Friday in China. "He knows what his job is, he knows what we employ him to do, he knows why we employ him to do it, and he's been with Red Bull for a long time now, as a junior driver and as a Formula One driver and now as a multiple world champion.

"He recognizes, more than anybody, the value that the team has behind the success that he's achieved in the car, and he knows that he can't operate without the team. So he doesn't put himself above the team or think that he's running the team for one moment. He's made a decision in a race as a hungry driver and obviously based that decision on all kinds of emotions at that point in time. I think that he's made his position clear, that he's apologized to the team, he's apologized to myself. It's happened and we move on but it doesn't change anything."

Horner added that the drivers know their place on the team roster.

"First of all, the drivers need the team," he said. "They're an essential part of the team and one element of 500 or 600 people. Has my authority been undermined? In that race he didn't do what I asked. Was I happy about it? Of course I wasn't. Did we discuss it? Yes, we did. Did he apologize? Yes.

"Has he learned from it? I'm sure he has. Would he do it again? I think he'd think twice but I think as he explained yesterday there is an awful lot of history between those drivers. It's something that isn't new. It's something that's been there between the two of them for the past four or five years. Let's not forget they are one of the most successful pairings that the sport has ever seen. They have won three successive constructors' world championships for the team and Sebastian, of course, has become the youngest ever triple world champion."

Horner emphasized that he's still in charge of Red Bull on race day and there is no plan to break up the most successful team in Formula One race today.

"Is my leadership undermined? I don't think so," Horner said. "I've led the team from the time that Red Bull entered the sport to those 35 victories, to those world championships. Of course there have been lumps and bumps along the way, there have been incidents between the two drivers. But we retain them because they are both fiercely competitive individuals, they drive each other forward and they bring the best out of each other and at some points of course it's uncomfortable for the team. But I think it's a healthy rivalry, even though they took things into their own hands."